As a big fan of the TV series, Castle, I was curious to read one of Richard Castle’s books. So, after much thought, I bought a copy of Frozen Heat. First let me say that there was much to like about this book. The plot was interesting. There were many twists and turns, a few surprises, and a bit of a cliffhanger at the end. Castle’s writing style is a little off-beat, yet entertaining. As a novelist myself, I often have a more discriminating and critical eye than the typical reader—especially when it comes to technical issues. Here are my gripes.

First off, the book is about 30 or 40 pages longer than it needs to be. I think there are passages that do not serve to propel the plot forward and they seem like fillers. There are also way too many characters. It seems that a new name pops up on every other page, and I found it often difficult trying to figure out who was who. Almost all of the dialogue is without attributes identifying the speaker. For the most part, it wasn’t difficult to figure out. However, many times I had to backtrack to be sure I knew who was talking. Lastly, this may sound petty, but in several scenes, the narrative is written through the eyes of multiple characters. One point-of-view per scene is the Golden Rule.